The present invention relates to techniques for verifying data stored on data storage media, and more particularly, to techniques for verifying that a data storage system correctly writes data onto a memory device.
A disk drive writes data onto a data storage disk such as a magnetic hard disk. A disk drive typically uses a head to read and write data from/onto the disk. Many types of defects can be introduced into a disk drive system during the design and manufacturing process. Some of these defects can cause the disk drive to write erroneous data or no data at all onto a magnetic disk.
For example, often the firmware that controls the functionality of the disk drive contains bugs. Some types of bugs can cause a disk drive to write erroneous data onto a magnetic disk. As another example, the disk drive hardware can contain hardware defects. Some types of hardware defects can also cause the disk drive to write erroneous data onto a magnetic disk.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide techniques for testing a data storage system to determine whether it correctly writes data onto a memory device before the data storage system is released to production.